At large events like fairs, conferences or trade shows and big places like shopping malls, airports, superstores, universities, industrial plants, amusement parks, museums, or libraries, people have to find their way around these facilities with little or no prior knowledge about the location. For orientation, most public places display signs and maps to help the visitor find his way. Although signs can be very helpful for finding the way, they are typically limited to indicating often-used routes. If signs at any given place show too many possible points of interest (for example, every booth at a trade show), the user may be overwhelmed with information he does not immediately need. Moreover, maps that show all the possible points of interest can be complicated to use. The user has to figure out his position and orientation on the map, find the location of his destination on the map, plan a (possibly non-optimal) route to the destination, and (in case of stationary maps) memorize the path to the destination. Then, the user actually has to navigate the planned route within the real world. Additionally, portable paper maps, especially larger ones that have to be unfolded prior to use, can be cumbersome to use.
A few places (like museums) have human guides who lead the way based on their knowledge of the place. However, human guides are expensive and therefore rare.
Some places, like computer fairs, feature manned or computerized information kiosks that display or print the location of the visitor""s destination on a screen or on paper. Information kiosks do not really guide peoplexe2x80x94they merely provide customized maps, with all the problems mentioned above.
Various conventional location systems have been proposed that can identify and locate specific users or locations. For example, the well known global positioning system (GPS) uses radio or microwave frequency signals sent from various satellites to provide locational information of a GPS receiver, which may be mobile. Other systems have used ultrasonic frequency, radio or microwave frequency, or infrared transmissions to locate specific transceivers, such as carried by users, which may be mobile. However, these types of conventional systems involve complex equipment and are too expensive to implement for local guidance area systems, especially for guidance areas that may be constantly changing or exist only for a specified time period (for example, traveling trade shows).
One such conventional local guidance system that has been proposed includes smart badges worn by users, information stations located throughout the guidance area, and electronic direction signs also located throughout the area. The smart badges include identification information about the specific user that is transmitted via infrared communications. The information stations and electronic direction signs are connected to a network and a shared database. The information station is a device where the user sets his preferences, display and order information according to these preferences or finds information about the place the user is visiting. The electronic direction sign communicates with the smart badge of the user in the electronic direction sign""s proximity, and shows the user based on the identification information in the user""s smart badge the nearest way to the particular destination that was previously chosen by the user at the information station. This kind of system requires several information stations which must be used with the smart badges, and these information stations can include fairly expensive equipment and require additional installation time. Moreover, as this system relies on a shared central database, all of the electronic direction signs must be networked, which contributes to the expense and complexity of the system. In addition, failures of the database or network may significantly inhibit, or even prevent, such a system from functioning.
It is seen from the above that a simpler, more economic alternative to a guidance system to efficiently facilitate guidance of human users in a localized area is desirable.
The present invention is easier to use than maps and provides a low overhead way to quickly find a destination in the real world. The present invention helps people orient themselves in such surroundings by guiding them along a path to a selected location of their choice. Cheaper than a human guide and other conventional locational guidance systems, the invention is easy to usexe2x80x94once the user specified his destination, he only has to follow the direction indicated by the arrows. The present invention provides only the information the user needs at the time he needs it.
According to a specific embodiment, the present invention provides an infrared guidance system for guiding a user to a selected one of multiple locations in a defined area. The system includes a portable device and an indicator. The portable device includes an infrared transceiver and an input to receive information corresponding to a selected location in the defined area. The indicator includes an indicator infrared transceiver, direction signs, and directional information corresponding to the relative direction in a path from the indicator to each of the locations. The portable device directly communicates the information corresponding to the selected location via the device infrared transceiver to the indicator infrared transceiver of the indicator to cause the indicator to access the directional information and activate the appropriate direction sign to guide the user toward the selected location.
According to another specific embodiment, the present invention provides a method for guiding a user to a selected one of multiple locations in a defined area. The method includes the steps of receiving at the portable device input information corresponding to the selected one of the locations, and sending an infrared transmission corresponding to the input information from the portable device to an indicator. The indicator includes an indicator infrared transceiver, direction signs, and directional information corresponding to the relative direction in a path from the indicator to each of the locations. The method also includes the steps of receiving the infrared transmission at the indicator when the infrared transmission is within range of the indicator infrared transceiver, accessing the directional information corresponding to the relative direction in a path from the indicator to the selected one of the locations, and activating the appropriate direction sign of the indicator to guide the user toward the selected location. The infrared transmission receiving step causes the accessing step.